Stephens has described the remains of this powerful city of the Quiché kings, and has figured the very sacrificial altar of Tohil down whose steep sides were hurled the quivering bodies of the human victims. Three centuries and a half is a long period for people of a new country to look back over; but that time has passed since the Conquistadores destroyed the citadel and moved the inhabitants to the site of the present Santa Cruz del Quiché. Forty years ago the towers, faced with cut stone, the altar, some houses, and even the outer walls, were in good preservation; but all these have since been torn down, and the neatly cut stone removed to repair a miserable mud church in the town. These blocks of travertine were generally of uniform size, 18 × 12 × 4 inches; and mingled with them were blocks of pumice cut to one third of this size. The Plaza was still paved with a smooth layer of cement exactly an inch thick, not unlike the chunam of the East Indies, and entire, except where the modern vandals had cut through it in search of foundation-stones which they are too stupid to cut from the quarries much nearer the town. Five towers are plainly visible still, though now but insecure piles of rubbish, the casing having disappeared. In several there are small cavities not large enough for rooms, but sufficient to serve as ladder wells, and under one our guide assured us was the entrance to a long tunnel extending to the distant hills; but when we insisted upon his pointing out the place, he utterly failed. Not an arrow-head could we find, although plain pottery in fragments was abundant.
The whole fortress was built on a promontory surrounded, except at one narrow neck, by steep barrancas several hundred feet deep; and to the rivers at the bottom there were probably tunnels from the summit, as the ancient Indios were very expert in underground work. It is from these tunnels, most likely, that much of the pumice-stone was obtained. Across the barranca towards the town are the remains of three fine watch-towers, from which a good view of the entire fortress, as well as of the surrounding country, may be obtained. Remains of other similar towers were seen far up the mountain slopes on either side, and from these the warders signalled with fire or smoke the approach of hostile visitors.
At the beginning of the present century the palace of the Quiché kings was in such a state of preservation that its plan could be easily traced, even to the garden. But unfortunately a small gold image was discovered in the ruins; and this determined the Government to search for treasure, which tradition has always located in the ruins of Utatlan. In this search the palace was utterly destroyed; and hardly a wall would have been left standing had not the Indios, indignant at the wanton destruction of their once famous capital, become so turbulent that explorations were no longer safe. In 1834 a commission from the capital made a full and careful report on the condition of the ruins, and on this report Stephens largely rests in his interesting account of Quiché. Even in 1840, at the time of his visit, he found many traces which are now gone, especially the Sacrificatorio, which was a quadrilateral pyramid, with a base of sixty-six feet on the side, and a height, in that ruined condition, of thirty-three feet. One side of this awful relic of human misery was plain, though bearing traces of painted figures of animals; but the other three sides were supplied with steps in the middle, as may be seen in the illustration, taken from Catherwood’s sketch. These steps were only eight inches wide on the tread, while the risers were seventeen inches,—a proportion that must have made the descent very awkward for the priests if they were as corpulent as the more modern monks.
Quiché Altar of Tohil (Sacrificatorio).
We met on our return a marimba, carried by two men, while the three players followed, beating out clear and agreeable notes. A frame between seven and eight feet long and twenty-nine inches high, supports on cords thirty strips of hard wood, beneath each of which is a wooden resonator duly proportioned for tones. The music was always attractive, and just now it drew a long procession in honor of the gymnasts of the day before, who followed the marimba on horseback.
Marimba.
In the Plaza we bought jicaras, or calabash[14] chocolate-cups,—three for a medio. Other interesting things for sale were small crabs dried on spits, dried shrimps of large size, raw cotton white and brown, floss silk, cloths both cotton and woollen, fresh and preserved squash, bread, sugar-candy, and eau sucré colored pink, tin-ware, pottery, ropes and bags of pita, leather sandals, sugar-cane, coconuts, baskets, and cheap foreign wares. In this town of six thousand inhabitants there are very few manufactures. We saw a woman boldly eating the game she caught in a little girl’s hair. I had before seen aged Hawaiian women engaged in this fascinating pursuit; but they always seemed ashamed to be seen by strangers. Not so the Quiché woman; the wretch even held her hand out for us!
